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65
There is a slight increase in the number of deaths in the ageperiod
1-2 years, but this is due to the 6 deaths which occurred from
Measles. hast year was a Measles epidemic year : in this district
Measles has in recent years regularly occurred in epidemic form
every other year.
There is also an increase in the mortality in the age-period
25-45 years, due to an increased number of deaths from Phthisis,
heart disease and Cancer. A higher mortality from Phthisis would
be felt in this age-period, but it is most unusual to find so heavy
an incidence of Cancer in this age-period.
There was an increase of 45 in the number of deaths in the
age-period 45-65 years, and of 19 in the age-period of 65 and upwards.
47 per cent, of the deaths occurred in people of 65 years
and upwards.
Of the total deaths 385 were males and 409 females.
The average age of the males was 52.2 and of the females
60.9. The average of all the persons who died was 56.6.
There were increases in the number of deaths from old age,
heart disease, especially in people over 65 years of age, Cancer,
Bronchitis, Pneumonia and Cerebral Haemorrhage. As I have
pointed out in previous reports, these diseases are associated with
advancing years and with the altering age-incidence of the population.
Although there has been an apparent increase in recent years
in the number of deaths attributed to heart disease, there is no evidence
to show that heart disease is an increasing menace. There
is an increasing tendency among doctors to give old age as a cause of
death, but most of them still name a definite disease as the existing
cause, and the most popular one in recent years has been Myocarditis
or Myocardial degeneration. These are placed under heart disease
together with Myocarditis and Valvular Disease after Rheumatic
Fever, but there is no analogy between the two conditions. In the
former, the degeneration of the heart was merely part of a general
degeneration. Death could not be avoided, and methods of prevention
could not avail. When the disease follows Rheumatic infection
as was probably the case in the sixteen deaths under 45 years
of age, the conditions are entirely different. The infection may
have been an avoidable one, and the life could have been prolonged.